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Video Clip of the Month: ‘Guy Walks Across America’

August 2, 2010 by

My August 2010 video clip of the month is “Guy Walks Across America,” a viral video on YouTube illustrating how social media is changing advertising.

The video, funded by Levi’s jeans (which is featured prominently at the end of the clip), has racked up more than a million viewers since its debut on YouTube July 20. It features actor/model Michael Johnson wearing Levi’s jeans and a plain T-shirt on a 14-day cross country trip past American landmarks both major and minor. The video is popular because of a unique visual effect created by a combination of stop-motion and time-lapse video.

The actual cost of the video hasn’t been released, but producer Blake Heal told ABC News that the project was created on a shoestring budget and edited in an RV along the journey. It will be interesting to see how this presumably small investment translates into Levi’s sales.

The recent Old Spice Guy commercials on YouTube increased sales of the Old Spice brand by 107 percent. Like “Guy Walks Across America,” they didn’t shove the actual brand—Old Spice—down viewers’ throats and were incredibly fun to watch. More importantly, every viewer wanted to watch them (they weren’t interupting anything), and they were completely free to broadcast (not hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars). 

Indeed, social media is changing advertising, and we’re only just beginning to see how dramatic that change will be.

What kind of social media advertising campaigns do you predict will grow out of this precedent? Please share your ideas in the comments section below.



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About Monica

Monica specializes in strategic communications, web and new media, and print materials with an international or multi-cultural context. She has worked on national public outreach campaigns targeting multi-cultural audiences and has conceptualized, written, and/or designed multiple websites. Monica also has written, edited, and/or designed high-profile newsletters, brochures, and reports, including some prepared in collaboration with the White House. She holds a bachelor’s in journalism and a master of international service with a focus on international communication. Monica is based in Washington, D.C.

Comments

  1. Troy Y. says:
    January 8, 2011 at 9:50 pm

    This is cool but its not real… I am really walking across America: http://tinyurl.com/36vy4vj

    • Monica says:
      January 8, 2011 at 10:47 pm

      Thanks for sharing your video and for helping soldiers. My brother is in the U.S. Army, so I really, really appreciate what you’re doing.